My tales of self-publishing and marketing my first book and it's sequel.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Sunscreen - Why I Will Never Quit

As I was working on our "$100 cash to one of the first 100 people who buy our book" promo yesterday, I became discouraged. Again. The NCCCA Dream Picnic book signing and presentation on June 30th was a bust. I put it in all the calendar of events, 1100 fliers to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students at local elementary schools, posters all over the place. Colleen, the DEC Coordinator and Educational Programs Director was there and brought a neighbor, a very nice young girl. Colleen also sent some fliers to some students but to no avail.

See, what happened on the same day was a ceremony for a fallen soldier. Hundreds of people attended and I would have, too, if it weren't for the commitment we made. It was a very sobering and sad day for Plattsburgh.

We did sell seven books, five of them were to a postal employee who bought three initially then came back for two more! So, it was worth it. Colleen and I also talked about hosting a winter "Read Around The Campfire" book reading. Our book is a perfect readaloud around the campfire so I think it'll work out well.

Back to the beginning of the blog and my work on our "$100 cash to one of the first 100 people who buy our book". I decided to fax or mail a flier announcing the promotion to each store which carries our book. Haven't heard anything from one of them. Are they in the trash or being displayed? Hmmm. Becoming discouraged. Time to take action.

I played my favorite song, Everybody is Free aka The Sunscreen Song, by Baz Luhrmann. I played it over and over again. I cried. Then I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper which I've been meaning to write. Then I went to camp. My haven. I'm ok. I'll never quit. I'm simply not a quitter. I'm just human.